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Křetínský's EP Group debuts at no. 179 on Fortune Global 500

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Prague-based EP Group, owned by Daniel Křetínský, has made its debut on the prestigious Fortune Global 500 — landing straight at No. 179 among the world's largest companies by revenue. It is the first time a Czech company has appeared on the list, and with it, Prague and the whole of Czechia have made their first appearance on the ranking's map.

Fortune put EP Group's revenue at $75.387 billion (about 1.6 trillion crowns) and its net profit at $2.567 billion. The growth rate is especially striking: the company's revenue rose 153% year on year — one of the steepest jumps on the entire list.

The explosive growth stems from a string of major acquisitions EP Group carried out in 2025. Křetínský's company bought International Distribution Services, whose holdings include the British postal service Royal Mail and logistics operator GLS. The group also took control of the German wholesale chain Metro and increased its stake in the Slovak energy company Slovenské elektrárne.

Thanks to these deals, the holding — originally focused on energy — has turned into a multi-sector conglomerate built around three core businesses: energy, logistics, and wholesale and retail. By EP Group's own calculations, had the acquired companies' results been counted for the full year, the group's 2025 revenue would have reached roughly €81 billion, with EBITDA of almost €7 billion.

The gap with Fortune's figures is explained by differing accounting methods and the period over which the acquired assets were included in the reporting. According to its consolidated annual report, EP Group posted revenue of €66.84 billion and net profit of €4.55 billion last year.

For comparison, the Fortune Global 500 as a whole was topped this year, for the first time, by Amazon, which dethroned Walmart after 12 consecutive years at No. 1. The five hundred largest companies in the world together earned $43.1 trillion in revenue and a record $3.39 trillion in profit. The United States has the most companies on the list (141), followed by China, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (122) — against that backdrop, the Czech company's entry into this elite club looks like an especially significant achievement.

By the Around Prague newsroom

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